The New Apprentice
by MasterMind 16X
Summary: Monica, a young girl with the skills needed to be a ranger, suffers from several handicaps to inhibit her abilities. Will, however, sees potential, after serious training. And, after Will loses a bet, he takes Monica on as his apprentice. Can they overcome Monica's handicaps and make her a good ranger? Full explanation inside. NOT standard cliché, trust me.
1. Chapter 1

Explanation

In this story I will be taking a cliché amongst Ranger's Apprentice FanFictions and twisting it. The biggest cliché I've noticed is that of a female apprentice, usually Will's. The female apprentice, against the expectations of everyone else, becomes the greatest ranger of all time. She essentially rises to become a Mary-Sue. I will be taking the female apprentice cliché, but rather than making her, in a nutshell, perfect, I'll be adding quite a few... handicaps, we'll say, to reduce her skill, essentially making her really struggle in the Ranger's Corps training. To handicap her ability to hide, I'm giving her some rather bad allergies. Her archery will be handicapped by a random arm twitch, and her unseen movement will be handicapped by a limp she has from a childhood injury. Now, some of you may be wondering why Will (I will be keeping that particular element) chose her. Her skills are exceptional, when she isn't hampered by her handicaps. Minus her handicaps, she would prove to be a great ranger, though perhaps not as great as Will or Halt. Plus, Will lost a bet that will be explained in the first chapter. Am I forgetting anything? Now, all that remains is this: Anyone interested?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1:

Will was standing outside his cabin at Seacliff Fief, waiting for his old friends, Horace and George. Will looked around into the forest. It was midday, and the sunlight was shining through the thin branches of the trees. Will looked again and saw no sign of Horace or George. Where were they? Horace and George said they would meet Will outside his cabin around nine. Will figured at least three hours had passed since nine. Will took one more look around and headed off towards the ferry to ask if they even passed by. Will walked to the ferry, about a ten minute walk, and asked the workers if they had seen a large knight and a small district attorney recently. "Yeah, they passed by a few hours ago. They walked off towards the castle."

Will thanked the worker, not allowing any of his confusion to spread across his face, and walked towards the castle. On the way, Will thought about what he had heard. Why were Horace and George heading to the castle? Will specifically remembered telling them to meet him at his cabin. The castle was most definitely NOT his cabin. Will, lost in thought, arrived at the castle without realizing it. Will looked around the front of the castle, but still didn't see his friends. Will went inside, intent on finding his friends. Will took two steps towards the entrance to the castle when he heard a sneeze on his left. He looked and saw movement in the bush directly left of him. He walked up to the bush, looked inside, and saw a young girl. The girl looked at him and ran off. Will recognized that girl, but he couldn't recall her name. Before Will had a chance to think, he heard someone yell his name. Will recognized the voice, it was the voice of Horace. Will turned towards the voice and saw, as reason would have it, Horace and George walking towards him. "Hey, Will! Who's your friend?" Horace yelled.

"What friend? Or her. She's just some villager. I can't remember her name. Anyway, what took you two? I thought we agreed to meet outside my cabin," Will said.

"Well, we did, but we got a little lost. We came to the castle entirely by accident and wound up walking in circles. This island is like a maze," George replied.

"George, my cabin is about ten minutes that way," Will said, pointing to the southeast.

"Oh, then please lead the way," George replied.

Will sighed and started walking towards his cabin. Horace and George followed him. Will, after a few minutes of thinking, suddenly remembered the girl's name. Her name was Monica, and she was the daughter of a fairly wealthy family in the village. The girl was pretty stealthy, when she wasn't sneezing, and rather talented at hiding. Will told his friends what he just recalled. "So, would she make a good ranger?" Horace asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. She has a few, uh, handicaps, I guess, that inhibit her ability to sneak. And I've never really spoken with her. Don't forget, most people think of rangers as black magicians," Will replied.

"Right. You rangers are evil, scary magicians. You kidnap children in their sleep and turn them into monsters," Horace replied with a grin.

Will tried thinking of a clever comeback, but couldn't, so instead he said "How's Evanlyn?"

Horace smiled. "We're engaged now!"

"Horace, I already knew that. I was there. And if I remember correctly, you thought it would be a good idea to get married on a Skandian wolfship. With the crown princess," Will said.

Horace sighed. "Well, are you ever going to propose to Alyss?"

"I tried, but she got mad at me. I'm not sure what to do now," Will replied. "And here we are at my home." Will, Horace, and George had arrived at Will's cabin. Will let them in and they resumed their conversation by the fireplace.

"Oh, yeah. I remember that now. Didn't you say something like 'Maybe we should try something like that" or something along those lines? Do you think that maybe she's mad because she didn't get a real proposal?" Horace replied.

"What was wrong with the way I proposed?" Will asked.

"Never mind. So, I'll bet that you've grown soft since then. Can you still shoot twenty arrows a second?" Horace asked.

"Twenty arrows? That's ridiculous!" George exclaimed.

"Yeah Horace. Be realistic. I could shoot at least fifty arrows in a full second!" Will retorted.

George rolled his eyes and sat back, giving up trying to be logical. There really is no way to make reason out of these rangers.

"Would you care to make a bet on that?" Horace said.

"Oh, no. Please, not another bet," George muttered. No one seemed to hear him.

"Deal. Terms?" Will said.

"You need to hit three targets each 50 meters away from you and 25 meters from each other. Each shot needs to hit the dead center," Horace said.

"Easy. Though, I'm not sure what that has to do with speed," Will said.

"Don't worry about the speed. I doubt you could hit those targets, even slowly. After all, you've done nothing for about two months. I bet you've lost it," Horace said with a grin.

"Fine. If I win, you do my housework for two weeks," Will said.

"Why does no one ever listen to me?" George muttered.

"Agreed. And if I win, you have to take that girl, Monica, as an apprentice," Horace said.

"What, why?" Will asked.

"Because I think it would be funny. Besides, with the right training I think she'd be pretty good. Plus, I got in trouble with Cassandra about saying that a woman like her shouldn't be fighting, that fighting was for men. I'm hoping by setting up a girl in a place where men are supposed to be will calm her down and get me back in her good books," Horace said.

"Wait, so if I lose, you get to make up with your fiance while I train an apprentice and possibly get in trouble with Crowley and Halt, but if you lose all I get is no housework for two weeks?" Will said.

"Pretty much," Horace replied.

"Deal."

Will and Horace went outside and set up the targets in the woods. George resigned himself to the fact that they're actually doing it and went outside to watch. Will stood in the position and knocked an arrow. A second later two of the targets had arrows sticking out of them. Will grinned at Horace and said "Get ready to lose." Horace grunted and, just as Will was about to shoot, "accidentally" bumped Will to the side. The arrow hit the target, a few centimeters too far to the left. Which was very impressive considering how hard Horace bumped Will.

"Not fair. You cheated," Will accused.

"Who, me? I would never cheat, would I, George?" Horace replied.

"Well," George's inner attorney came out "technically, the terms were that Will just had to hit the targets. Nowhere did you specify that Horace couldn't interfere with your shots."

"Thanks, George," Will replied sarcastically.

"Well, Will, you need to go and recruit that girl for the Rangers Corps. Better get going," Horace said.

"Uh, well, it's getting late, I'll do it tomorrow. First thing tomorrow morning," Will said.

"Great, I'll be sure to get you up. I know how you rangers like to sleep in," Horace said with a grin. Will just groaned and went inside.

Author's Note:

If anyone is interested in this story, please let me know. The only reason chapter 1 came so quickly was because I figured you guys would want a rough idea of how well I write before committing to a story. I really doubt I'll continue this story if no one likes it, especially since I have other things I should be doing, so let me know if anyone likes this story. Either in a review, PM, or even just clicking the follow or favorite button.


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